Irrawaddy-Dec 8
Despite the upcoming election, which the generals hope will grant the junta a veneer of legitimacy, regime boss Min Aung Hlaing said the Myanmar military will “continue to play a leading role in politics until ethnic armed groups (EAOs) no longer exist.” In recent weeks, the coup leader has been busy attending military graduation ceremonies and meeting civil servants and police officers, using the opportunity to urge voters to support candidates with “defense-minded views” and who are “aligned” with the military, which he described as the country’s “strongest institution.” Min Aung Hlaing also repeated his familiar refrain: EAOs and People’s Defense Forces should lay down their weapons, since seven decades of armed struggle have produced “no results.” Yet in the same breath, he insists the military will never leave politics. The 2008 Constitution, drafted under the previous military regime, enshrines the military’s “leading role” in national politics, reaffirms its duty to safeguard the “Three Main National Causes,” and even grants the commander in chief the right to appoint military MPs and seize power. Min Aung Hlaing cited the 2008 Constitution in staging a coup and seizing power from a democratically elected government in 2021. With no major democratic parties left to challenge them, there will be no one inside the chamber to argue for the army’s exit from politics. Min Aung Hlaing’s remark comes as the junta enjoys increasing financial and military aid from its two major allies and arms suppliers, China and Russia, which have enabled it to reverse battlefield losses. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/politics/myanmar-junta-boss-says-military-will-remain-in-politics-until-eaos-disappear.html
